Feature Flick: Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Trailer Hits the Web

Electronic Arts’ Need For Speed franchise chose to take a more realistic approach to racing games when it debuted Shift in 2009, facing games like Forza and Gran Turismo head on. Now, a mere two years later, Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed is set to be released and the first trailers have hit the web.

In the first trailer, NFS transitions between gameplay and in-person interviews to provide a comparison of the realism of the game. As you’d expect from a modern video game, it’s often hard to tell the computer-generated graphics from the live footage.

According to NFS Shift 2 Unleashed developers, the physics of the game are equally as realistic as the graphics. The trailer gives an inide look at how the developers created one of the most advanced physics simulators in a video game. To get the simulation just right, NFS gathered actual telemetry data from the featured racecars and implemented it directly into the game. Developers sought out a number of big-name race car drivers to help with fine tuning the system. Vaughn Gitten Jr., from Formula Drifting, and Tommy Milner, from the American Le Mans Series, tested the real cars and then compared them to the portrayals in the game, providing to the NFS team feedback along the way.

While this all sounds impressive, we won’t know just how realistic the game is, and if the physics simulator truly is up to par with those in Gran Turismo 5 and Forza 3, until the game comes out on March 29. Until we get our hands on it, we’ll have to make do with the trailer below.

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